Pro-Biden Group Responds to Trump’s Recent Religious Rhetoric With Ad Aimed at Christians

A group supporting President Biden’s re-election is airing an ad in swing states focused on convincing Christians to support Mr. Biden over President Trump. The spot is intended to serve as a counter-message to what some have called Mr. Trump’s “Christian nationalism.” “On the sixth day, God made all of us. God said we need leaders who can unite rather than divide, who stand on morals and values, and who don’t idolize dictators and bullies,” the ad states. “President Biden answered the call.”The ad, created and placed by the group Faith Forward, is an apparent response to the now-infamous “God Made Trump” video shared by the former president.“On June 14, 1946, God looked down on his planned paradise and said I need a caretaker, so God gave us Trump,” the pro-Trump video says. “God said I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, fix this country, work all day, fight the Marxists, eat supper … I need somebody with arms strong enough to rustle the Deep State.”The new pro-Biden ad spot makes reference to the pro-Trump video, making use of the same phrases and mirroring some of the visual style.“God said I need someone with arms strong enough to protect the planet, strong enough to fight monstrous evils spreading across the globe,” the Faith Forward ad says. “God said I need someone willing to give their whole life in service.” The videos are aimed squarely at appealing to American Christians, who make up 68 percent of the population, according to a Gallup survey released in late March.Even though the proportion of Americans who identify as religious has been steadily declining in recent decades, about 45 percent of Americans consider religion “very important,” and another 26 percent say it’s “fairly important.”Although Mr. Trump enjoys the support of most white evangelical Protestants — the 2020 AP VoteCast survey found he had 81 percent support among the group compared to Mr. Biden’s 18 percent — other groups are more split.In 2020, the Edison exit polls found that 52 percent of Catholics supported Mr. Biden, while 47 percent backed Mr. Trump. The numbers marked an improvement for Mr. Biden, a practicing Catholic, over Secretary Clinton’s performance with the group.The new ad also comes as the two presidential candidates spar over faith in other arenas. Mr. Trump has been, for instance, selling his own brand of bible for $60 each and attacked the White House for recognizing the Transgender Day of Visibility this year, which happened to fall on Easter Sunday.Mr. Trump also suggested that Election Day this year will be the “Christian visibility day,” suggesting that Christians will rally around the former president.“Such total disrespect to Christians, and November 5 is going to be called something else,” Mr. Trump said at a rally. “You know what it’s going to be called? Christian visibility day, when Christians turn out in numbers that nobody has ever seen before.”A White House spokesman, Andrew Bates, responded in a statement, saying, “Sadly, it’s unsurprising politicians are seeking to divide and weaken our country with cruel, hateful, and dishonest rhetoric.”While the new Faith Forward spot represents one of the more overt forays into direct religious messaging from the pro-Biden camp, the bible selling and the “God Made Trump” video represent an escalation of such messaging for Mr. Trump, who has often been criticized for portraying himself in a messianic fashion. On the first day of Mr. Trump’s civil fraud trial in New York this year, for example, Mr. Trump shared an image of himself sitting next to Jesus in the courtroom.

Pro-Biden Group Responds to Trump’s Recent Religious Rhetoric With Ad Aimed at Christians

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